A proposed nationwide class action filed in federal court in Chicago has accused McDonald’s of using an AI-powered pricing system to coordinate menu prices across its franchise and company-owned restaurants.
The lawsuit, filed on Friday, alleges that McDonald’s violated US antitrust law by working with independent franchisees to fix prices through algorithms trained on nonpublic data.
The complaint cited a report stating that McDonald’s pricing engine uses machine-learning algorithms to continuously analyse data from millions of daily transactions across nearly 14,000 restaurants. It also noted that other fast-food companies are using AI for pricing and other business operations.
“Independent businesses must set their prices independently,” the lawsuit said.
McDonald’s rejected the allegations, calling them speculative and uninformed. “AI does not set the price of a Big Mac or any other menu item,” the company said. It added that franchisees make their own pricing decisions and that pricing recommendation tools and analytics are widely used across industries.
The case comes amid a wider wave of class-action lawsuits in the US alleging that companies used algorithms or AI systems to coordinate prices illegally. Similar cases have involved hotel rooms, apartment rentals and other purchases.
Lark Turner, a lawyer for the plaintiff, said McDonald’s is “leveraging its troves of data and its franchised system to nickel-and-dime consumers down to the last French fry.”
The plaintiff, an Illinois resident, is seeking to represent a class that could include millions of McDonald’s customers, according to the lawsuit.
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